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Ohio has spent millions of tax dollars on efforts to rid Grand Lake St. Marys of toxic
blue-green algae.

That’s something area business owners and residents have rallied behind. But a plan to form a
special Lake Facilities Authority that can tax Grand Lake properties and hotels to augment state
and federal funding has fueled a public debate about who should pay for the cleanup.

Milt Miller, manager of the Grand Lake St. Marys Restoration Commission, said the proposed
authority would provide local government oversight and possibly more money to help secure state and
federal cleanup grants.

“For the long-term growth of our organization and the restoration of the lake, we simply had to
do something,” Miller said. Miller, along with Mercer and Auglaize county officials, said that even
if the authority is formed, they have no immediate plans to ask voters for additional property or
hotel taxes.

The idea has drawn opposition from another group, Guardians of the Grand Lake St. Marys.

“The people who have been hurt the most — the property owners and the business owners around the
lake — would be required to pay for the cleanup,” said Kate Anderson, the group’s president.The
13,000-acre lake and state park routinely drew thousands of campers, boaters and anglers every
year. The lake’s $150 million annual tourism economy has taken a hit since toxic algae blooms began
to form in recent years. In 2010, the algae were linked to illnesses in seven people.

Also called cyanobacteria, the algae grow thick in the lake each summer, feeding on phosphorus
from manure that rain washes off nearby farm fields. The algae, which also pose problems in Lake
Erie and other inland lakes, can produce liver and nerve toxins that threaten people, pets and
wildlife.

Grand Lake farmers now operate under restrictions that limit how much manure they can spread on
fields. The state has spent more than $9 million on work that included spraying the lake with an
algae-starving chemical.

Lawmakers set aside $2 million in the most-recent state budget to expand a 9-acre, manmade
wetland that absorbs phosphorus in stream water. The budget also created the Lake Facilities
Authority, which would be run by the six commissioners of Auglaize and Mercer counties. Any tax
increase would have to be approved by voters.

Jerry Laffin, a Mercer County commissioner, and Douglas Spencer, an Auglaize County
commissioner, said they want to create the authority first and use it to pursue grant dollars.

Laffin said the commissioners in both counties first must approve a resolution to establish the
authority.

“Right now, we’re not doing anything with the word
tax in it,” he said.

Anderson said her group would oppose any tax increase. She said more time and money should be
spent curtailing the flow of manure from farm fields, instead of focusing on the lake.

“Those are attempts at dealing with a symptom, not the problem,” Anderson said. “We want to keep
attention on how much manure keeps being dumped in that lake.”